• Design & Manufacturing
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.8-14
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• 2023

In this study, basic research was conducted on manufacturing technology of thick-walled light guide a component that controls the light source of automobile lamps. As a preliminary study for manufacturing the final injection molded parts, a model for analyzing the influence of micro patterns on light guides is presented. The optical characteristics of the light guide were analyzed according to the change of the curvature radius of the micro-optical pattern, and the injection molding characteristics of the light guide according to the change of injection molding conditions were analytically evaluated. It was confirmed that the luminance uniformity improves as the R value decreases for changes in the micro-pattern R value, but it was confirmed that there are technical limitations in actual injection mold core processing and high-replication injection molding. Injection molding analysis showed that cooling channel design is very important compared to general injection molding due to thick-wall characteristics and thickness variation. It was also confirmed that the cooling channel has a great influence on the cycle time and birefringence result due to residual stress. As a result of analyzing the influence of filling time, holding condition, and cooling on shrinkage, it was found that the cooling water temperature has a significant effect on the shrinkage of ultra-fine light guide parts, and the holding condition also has a significant effect.